Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve UpDate

[capitalbarry]

https://www.mscfans.it/en/

Edited January 16, 2019 by capitalbarry

[ready2cruzagain]

Thank you that sounds very interesting.  Will be there in December hopefully.

[Beamafar]

Thank you so much for posting this, CB.

 

It appears that MSC believes it's on target to be open for the first visit which is the Meraviglia repo from New York to Miami (which we'll be on - in YC  😃) so we're really hoping that this will be the case.

[citizenfrank]

2 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

Thank you so much for posting this, CB.

 

It appears that MSC believes it's on target to be open for the first visit which is the Meraviglia repo from New York to Miami (which we'll be on - in YC  😃) so we're really hoping that this will be the case.

I may be booking this!!!!!!

[ready2cruzagain]

6 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

Thank you so much for posting this, CB.

 

It appears that MSC believes it's on target to be open for the first visit which is the Meraviglia repo from New York to Miami (which we'll be on - in YC  😃) so we're really hoping that this will be the case.

 

I sure hope you are right.  We love private islands and this is right up our alley.  We have 3 cruises booked in Dec. going to Ocean Cay. 

 

I see that they have a buffet according to the article.  I was hoping they would.  Was worried it might be like Carnival and NCL's new private islands where everything is pay as you go and very expensive.

Edited January 16, 2019 by ready2cruzagain

[Beamafar]

18 minutes ago, citizenfrank said:

I may be booking this!!!!!!

 

There are quite a number of CC members booked on it, Frank.  It would be great if you do book it!  (We have the prior 10 night NY-Canada itinerary booked, too, as a 23 night cruise, rather than a B2B). 

[kelleherdl]

That looks like a pretty confident timeline.  That is of course barring an early season Bahama storm.  Unlikely. Early storms are Gulf.  Not to jinx anything.  We have an early December visit on Meraviglia. As everybody else we expect the YC experience ashore will be over the top. No need for villa rental like other ship islands.

 

Dennis

[Beamafar]

Here's a link to an article on the same subject:

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/20235-msc-cruises-to-offer-caribbean-paradise-at-ocean-cay-starting-nov-9.html

 

Some very interesting lines in it state:

 

"Ocean Cay also includes an adjacent smaller island which can be rented for a private experience.

 

A self-service food venue is offered at a nominal cost, according to Onorato, in addition to food carts with hamburgers and hot dogs at each of the beaches.

 

Beverage services will also have a small add-on cost to the beverage packages offered aboard".

 

No mention of what YC guests can expect.

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Beamafar

[js]

Thank you for this information.

 

We originally had the Ocean Cay itinerary for my sailing next month and then saw the long delay.

 

We are booked for February 2020, with Ocean Cay as a stop and hope the wait was worth it.

 

We will be staying in the YC and hoping there is something different and extra for YC, included or pay for play.

 

I wonder when cabanas will go on sale and if it can be done under the "excursion" section as with most cruiselines.

 

Looks like food and drinks will have to be paid while on the island.  NCL's new island, even though in the Haven, we had to pay for our drinks on the island in our cabana so guess they are all starting to do this now. Food was included.

 

As far as the private island from Ocean Cay, I am also interested in that and the cost. Wonder if it is very high, if a bunch of people, such as on CC could make a group and pay someone to reserve it.  I would be interested in doing that too.

 

Either way, can't wait.

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by js

[sidari]

As MSC now employs former NCL people it is no surprise that they will charge for food on OC, would not be surprised if they were also responsible for the drink package screw up.

For all those who are slated to be there on the dates given hopefully it will happen this time around.

[Beamafar]

I can't imagine MSC charging YC guests extra for food and drink on the island - at least not on the first few visits.  Interesting times ahead!

[kelleherdl]

1 minute ago, Beamafar said:

I can't imagine MSC charging YC guests extra for food and drink on the island - at least not on the first few visits.  Interesting times ahead!

me neither....

[Two Wheels Only]

2 hours ago, js said:

NCL's new island, even though in the Haven, we had to pay for our drinks on the island in our cabana so guess they are all starting to do this now. Food was included.

 

Was this at Great Stirrup Cay or at Harvest Caye?

[js]

Harvest Cay.  Loved the cabana there though on the adult only beach. Was so big and nice.

[Two Wheels Only]

12 minutes ago, js said:

Harvest Cay.  Loved the cabana there though on the adult only beach. Was so big and nice.

 

The "deal" that NCL (owner) and Belize have with Harvest Caye is a bit different than NCL owning GSC. Drinks and food on GSC are included but not with HC. Your post had me worried that GSC had changed.  

[champagne123]

7 hours ago, Beamafar said:

 

There are quite a number of CC members booked on it, Frank.  It would be great if you do book it!  (We have the prior 10 night NY-Canada itinerary booked, too, as a 23 night cruise, rather than a B2B). 

Myself included and cannot wait!!!!

[BermudaBound2014]

Just me again :). I'm going to toss this out there as a caution. Back in 2014 (or was it 2015) I caught a ton of slack from the members of this board when I warned them that Ocean Cay would in no way be ready in Sept. 2016. At that time I predicted 2020, so I really was considered 'out there' and some people called me negative. In early 2016, MSC they pushed the opening to Nov 2017 and again warned of some caution and was told there was no way MSC would delay the opening again and that it would certainly open in 2017. You see the pattern.  Here is an image of Ocean Caye that I just grabbed from google maps. They have made substantial progress on the pier since the last time I visited, but this doesn't look like it will be ready for Nov 2019 to me. Of course, this image may be old and it's been a year or so since I was nosy and looked up progress . I have the entire google Earth program loaded on my desktop and that is typically updated very regularly so I'll take a look at that later. Anyway, I sincerely hope it will be open but encourage members not to be terribly disappointed. 

 

[sidari]

BB ... OC was originally set to open for the first sailing of Seaside in 2017 and like everyone else onboard we were disappointed when we heard it would not be ready by then, things can move at a swift pace at times though I have never been convinced of the November 19 opening.

Hopefully we will both be wrong because I would hate to do a second cruise and miss out again.

[Beamafar]

We didn't book this cruise for the call to the island - in fact, it didn't even enter the equation, so, if it is ready and we are the first to get to enjoy it, we will be very pleasantly surprised, but, if not, we won't exactly be devastated ... disappointed - yes.

 

In fairness, MSC has to work off some date in the future to which they aspire to have the island ready.  Like everything else in life "the best laid plans of mice and men", etc ...

[sfaaa]

Looking good. Booked to cruise there in Sept 2020. Should be 100% complete and smooth running by then.

[BermudaBound2014]

I can not tell from Google Earth the exact date of the image which is weird. Here is a video of filling the island with sand. This video was uploaded March 2017 and you can see there is no work done on the pier, so the Google Earth photo which shows work done on the pier was taken sometime after. My best guess is spring 2018. The fact that the most current photo release shows some trees actually planted is a good sign.

 

For the record, I don't think MSC did anything wrong here, other than perhaps waiting longer than necessary to inform those booked to arrive first. The were selling ocean caye as a destination long after they knew there was zero hope of opening on-time.  But, I understand that business model also as ocean caye is a selling point. Experienced cruisers know there is never a guarantee of any port stop. We are solely at the discretion of the company and countries we visit.  Caribbean countries move at their own place. MSC isn't the only company to 'oversell' a destination either. Sandals in Jamaica was touting over ocean bungalows and it took nearly a decade to finally make that a reality. Sidari, wasn't the Divina scheduled to be the first ship to arrive? Maybe I  have the timeline all mixed up.

 

I know we talked about this a few years ago, but the history of ocean caye is interesting. It was first developed as an industrial island to act as a pipeline base. There are some cool pics of the island back in the early 2000's showing AES equipment for those that are interested.

 

As we all know, Ocean Caye is man made. Here is a video of them dredging sand for the island that I thought interesting. I've linked this video in the past so sorry for redundancy. The video was uploaded March of 2017.

 

 

I'm totally geeky and enjoy watching the industry evolve. Feel free to just delete me if not interested :).

 

 

[jamesboat]

2 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I can not tell from Google Earth the exact date of the image which is weird.

 

 

In Google Earth, on the top bar, there is a clock with a green arrow pointing back.

 

Click that, and you get a slider to see the area over time. Drag it left, and then to the right again, and you can see the date of the most recent image.

[hamrag]

On 1/16/2019 at 12:06 PM, Beamafar said:

Thank you so much for posting this, CB.

 

It appears that MSC believes it's on target to be open for the first visit which is the Meraviglia repo from New York to Miami (which we'll be on - in YC  😃) so we're really hoping that this will be the case.

 

Is that late October this year, somewhere around the 28th?.....if so, we have a YC booked also but most likely we have to cancel due to my forgetting milestone birth days for two (indirect) family members, including my MIL!!

 

What a missed opportunity that would be to meet you.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Am booked for late November this year and REALLY hope the island will be available.  Absolutely no interest in going to Nassau again.

[Beamafar]

2 hours ago, hamrag said:

 

Is that late October this year, somewhere around the 28th?.....if so, we have a YC booked also but most likely we have to cancel due to my forgetting milestone birth days for two (indirect) family members, including my MIL!!

 

What a missed opportunity that would be to meet you.

 

What a shame, HR.  We're on from Oct 18th to Nov 11th.

 

(I'm having déjà vu, here - I could have sworn I'd posted this earlier this evening.  I also 'Liked' your post, but that's not showing for me, either).